Berezovsky Proposes Britain's Prince Harry Be Made Russian Monarch

Prince of Wales press servicePrince Harry dancing with locals on a diplomatic trip to Jamaica last month.

London exile Boris Berezovsky announced Sunday that under his new Resurrection Movement political party, he would instate a constitutional monarchy in Russia and named Britain's Prince Harry as a candidate for king.

The business tycoon published a manifesto for his Christian-democratic party on his LiveJournal blog Sunday, the day Orthodox believers celebrated Easter.

"Returning the monarchy to the throne will reinstate an interrupted chain of time and become a symbol of the rebirth of Russia," he said. "Prince Harry — the younger son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana — is one of the bright symbols of the modern civilized world and a possible candidate. He has more Russian blood than the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II." Berezovsky noted that Harry's great grandmother was a Romanov.

The party will be founded on the "Christian" ideals of love and freedom, which Berezovsky says he believes will bring Russia salvation.

Berezovsky's other proposals include transforming Russia into a confederation; liberalizing the Orthodox church; installing a British-style legal system; and allowing anyone who can pass an exam that demonstrates their fluency in Russian and knowledge of Russian culture to become a Russian citizen.

But he told the BBC that he does not plan to register the party while President-elect Vladimir Putin is in power, since Berezovsky does not believe that Putin's reelection was legitimate.

"Putin...put himself there outside the law — he does not have any right to a third term," he said.

Prince Henry of Wales, known commonly as Prince Harry, is an officer in the British army and a controversial figure in Britain. He is the frequent subject of British tabloid reports, which have included a photograph of him wearing a Nazi uniform at a party and and a video of him making a racial slur about a fellow officer.

No normalization of ties between Ukraine and Russia is likely unless the region of Crimea, now under Russian control, is returned to Kiev's sovereignty, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said Tuesday.

Boris Nemtsov, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin and Russia's role in the Ukraine crisis, has been shot dead outside the Kremlin in a murder that underscored the risks taken by the Russian opposition.

The murder of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov has dampened any hope for a peaceful political transition in Russia away from President Vladimir Putin's government, Garry Kasparov, a prominent opposition voice, has said.

A spokesperson for Moscow's information technology department has denied media reports that some of the surveillance cameras around the Kremlin had been switched off at the time of Boris Nemtsov's murder.

The U.S. State Department and FBI have announced a $3 million reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Russian Yevgeny Bogachev, the highest bounty U.S. authorities have ever offered in a cyber case.